Post Doctoral Mexico State University

Post Doctoral

Las Cruces, NM

Develop a process‑based model to upscale tower flux data to watersheds with the main goal of improving our understanding of the feedback between forests in dryland ecosystems and the combined effects of climate change and management impacts. This will be achieved by:

• using CLM to upscale tower observations to the watershed and improve model representations of dryland ecosystems, including forested watersheds;
• integrating historic forest management into improved dynamic vegetation models to evaluate impacts on watershed structure and function;
• using CLM, coupled with Par Flow, to evaluate water and carbon fluxes over the dominant watersheds by improving the representation of land surface heterogeneity, including fractional cover, woody canopy structure, and LAI to account for the phenological cycle;
• developing a dryland‑specific plant functional type;
• developing a scenario‑based analysis to examine watershed responses to forest management and natural hazards; and
• analyzing other simple hydrologic models such as HEC‑HMS and SWAT.

Deliverables:
New CLM parametrization with improved water and carbon fluxes for NM Top 500 forested watersheds, including soil moisture, streamflow, sediment load, and groundwater recharge.

• Required
  
  Education:
  
  Doctorate degree in a related field (PhD in hydrology, Earth Science, or related discipline).
• Required Experience:
  
  None.
• Required Skills:
  
  Knowledge about land surface modeling specifically Community Land Model (CLM); programming skills using Python, Bash, and R; ability to use cloud computing tools such as GEE; ability to use both Windows and Linux systems.

Environment:
Moderate exposure to unusual elements such as extreme temperatures, dirt, dust, fumes, smoke, unpleasant odors, and/or loud noises.

Physical Effort:
Light physical effort; does not exceed two (2) hours per day. Requires handling average‑weight objects up to 10 pounds or some standing or walking.

Risk:
Work environment involves some exposure to hazards or physical risks, requiring following basic safety precautions.